on the news this morning was the almost unbelievable news that a pakistani husband and wife killed their daughter for 'looking at a boy'.
her manner of being killed is even more shocking as the parents poured acid on this girl.. there were 943 'honor killings' reported in pakistan this year with only 20 of the women being given any medical care before they died.. looking at the opposite sex.
one of the most natural responses we have as humans is construed as 'sin' and with it all of the religious and social prejudices that can and do lead to tragedy.. some day these cultures, bound by religious myths and superstitions, will change with education and understanding but it seems a long way off, to distant to have saved this young girl.. as the father of a daughter who i would protect at all costs this just leaves me shaken and i wonder how to reach those young people so they don't grow up to be like their parents..
An honor killing, or honour killing, is the homicide of a member of a family or social group by other members, due to the belief of the perpetrators that the victim has brought dishonor upon the family or community. Honor killings are di- rected mostly against women and girls and are most prevalent in Middle Eastern and South Asian Islamic cultures.
Many women's groups in the Middle East and Southwest Asia suspect that more than 20,000 women are honor killed each year.
According to University of Toronto professor of women's studies Shahrzad Mojab, followers of Hinduism, Islam, Judaism and Christianity have used their religions as a rationale to commit honour killings. She said that honor killings don't have "any definite connection with religion at all", and that honor killing had been practised before any major religion came into existence.
Khan instead blames it on attitudes (across different classes, ethnic and reli- gious groups) that view women as property with no rights of their own as the motivation for honor killings. Khan also argues that this view results in vio- lence against women and their being turned "into a commodity which can be ex- changed, bought and sold." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honor_killing
from nigerian newspaper via google alert a few minutes ago;.
entire family, 20 others die in fatal accidenttragedy struck weekend in akwa ibom state as a man, his wife and all their children, as well as more than 20 others, all members of the jehovahs witness church, perished in a fatal road accident which occurred, friday, along the utu etim ekpo road in etim ekpo local government area of the state.. forty other members of the church sustained varying degrees of injuries following in the crash which occurred on their way to the jehovahs witness annual convention ground in ikot ekpene local government area of the state.. thisdays gathered that more than 70 members of the church had hired a lorry to convey them from ukanafun local government area to ikot ekpene for the annual district convention which began on friday and billed to end today (sunday) but the journey ended half way with many members of the church dying on the road in the accident.. eyewitnesses alleged that the driver of the lorry conveying the church members to the venue of the convention lost control of the vehicle when he got to utu etim ekpo, the junction opposite the local government secretariat, and hit the stone used to construct the roundabout, thus resulting in the lorry somersaulting, leaving many of its passengers and others wounded.. the corpses and those injured in the accident were said to have been taken to neighbouring hospitals and mortuaries.. one of the eyewitnesses, mr. friday john, said the people who died may have been more than what was seen because a whole family including parents and their children were all trapped in the accident.. we were all here discussing when suddenly the lorry appeared and was looking like the driver had lost control of it.
then the lorry drove straight and hit the stone and somersaulted into the gutter.. many people died, more than 18. in fact, we couldnt count the number because there were many corpses, including husband, wife and children and they were all taken to the mortuary in various hospitals near etim ekpo here, john explained.. in another narration, a secondary school teacher in eka uruk eshiet etim ekpo, mr. ndipmo nkanta, said the lorry boarded by the deceased and the injured passengers was not meant for passengers but goods only.. he blamed the accident on poverty , arguing that if there was a better alternative, such casualties wouldnt have been recorded, especially as they were going to worship god.. the public relations officer of the federal road safety corps, frsc, in the state, mr. godsgift uwen, blamed the incident on over-speeding and overloading by the driver of the lorry.. he said the lorry was not supposed to carry any passenger as it was a meant for goods only but the driver stubbornly used it as a passengers vehicle, which led to the sad incident.. he advised against rush and drunken driving, especially in the yuletide, noting that these are some of the major causes of accidents on the roads.. culled from thisday".
I focus on the deceptions of the JWs leaders in acting exclusive, notably if anyone is hurt or killed. But I don't see anything to pin on them here. I consider the JWs followers victims, and in this case of a tragedy. But doing things the poor person's way is common in Nigeria where 63% live on below $1 a day. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_in_Nigeria
Any favorite drums will do. The RS list got me thinking about rock jazz/rock. My Dad had swing tune/New Orleans jazz recordings at my house when I was little, so I know there are lots of good drums parts there, too--some by Buddy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9esWG6A6g-k
i submit that paul was arguing in the context of what people believe in those days.
i think that he would have debated, much like we do, atheism, evolution, scientific process, etc... just as we do today.. in paul's day, evolution was not even dreamed about.
i'm not using this as an argument against evolution or atheism.
F.F. Powell argues that Paul, in his epistles, made use of many of the ideas of the Greek philosopher Plato, sometimes even using the same metaphors and lan- guage. For example, in Phaedrus, Plato has Socrates saying that the heavenly ideals are perceived as though "through a glass dimly." These words are echoed by Paul in 1 Corinthians 13:12. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostle_Paul#Literary_analysis
If Paul kept up with philosophy, I don't think he'd have argued for intelligent design. Maybe he'd have known about Mortimer Adler ("How to Think About God").
